Blanchard Sets Gay Boxer’s Sad Legend to Music: Interview

Jazz trumpeter, composer and boxing enthusiast Terence Blanchard. His workouts in the ring helped his collaboration with playwright Michael Cristofer on "Champion." The new opera traces the life of gay boxing champion Emile Griffith. Photographer: Shannon Brinkman via Bloomberg

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- When trumpeter Terence Blanchard
isn’t performing, he often hits the boxing gym for a workout.

His avocation came in handy when the Grammy Award-winning
jazz musician was asked to compose the music for “Champion,”
about the life of gay boxer Emile Griffith.

The opera, with a libretto by playwright Michael Cristofer
(whose “Shadow Box” won both the Pulitzer Prize and Tony
Award), premiered this month at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis
to strong reviews.

Griffith’s story, crafted by Cristofer like a boxing match
in 10 scenes, offered plenty of drama for Blanchard to color
with a lush orchestral touch. In the 1962 welterweight title
bout, Griffith’s brutal punches put Benny “The Kid” Paret in a
coma. He died 10 days later.

During the match, Paret called Griffith “maricon”
(derogatory Spanish slang for “homosexual”). Still, the death
haunted Griffith for years. Griffith’s career went downhill. He
was constantly harassed and almost beaten to death at a gay bar
in New York. At 75, he lives on Long Island and suffers from
dementia pugilistica.

Blanchard, a prolific composer who has scored many of
director Spike Lee’s films, talked to me at Bloomberg’s
headquarters in New York.

Busy Man

Cole: “Champion,” is up and running and you’ve just
released a new CD, “Magnetic,” on Blue Note. You’ve been a
busy man.

Blanchard: The opera has consumed my life for three years.
The album was like a blur. We really had fun doing it, but as
soon as we finished it and mixed it, I went right back to the
opera.

Cole: Did you have any exposure to opera early in your
musical career?

Blanchard: I grew up listening to opera. My father was a
singer, a baritone, and he’d always have performances and
recitals. He had those RCA Victor records. The main thing for me
was being confident and comfortable with the musical language I
was using.

My composition teacher, Roger Dickerson, told me when I
started writing for film that I needed to start to think about
how to take those phrases and rhythms and notate that for this
world. That’s what I drew upon to write this opera. What I tried
to do is tell a story musically.

Cole: When you sat down to write, what was the biggest
adjustment you had to make?

Forget Songs

Blanchard: I had stop thinking about writing songs. That
took a while to get accustomed to.

Cole: How did you connect to Emile Griffith and his world?

Blanchard: I already had a connection because I’ve been
boxing for a long time. One of my best friends, who told me
about Emile, was a former heavyweight champion himself. I’ve
hung out in a lot of great boxing gyms.

Cole: What parts of the opera stood out when you first saw
it rehearsed with the music?

Blanchard: In one scene, you have the old Emile standing on
a balcony, and then you have the young Emile the fighter. The
young Emile has been tormented by his aunt. She made him hold
cinder blocks above his head.

He sings this aria, “The Night Is Long,” about dealing
with his sexuality, in which he says, ‘I have the devil inside
me.’ Seeing that staged was very powerful.

Misunderstood Sport

Cole: What do you want audiences to take away from
Griffith’s story and your music?

Blanchard: Boxing is one of the most misunderstood sports.
While it is very barbaric and violent, there’s a science to it,
a brilliance to it that doesn’t get talked about. People truly
don’t understand the dedication it takes. That’s the thing that
broke my heart about Emile’s story.

For him to reach the highest level of achievement and not
be able to share that moment with someone who he loves openly is
a travesty.

(The remaining performances of “Champion” are tomorrow
and Sunday at Opera Theater of St. Louis, 210 Hazel Ave., St.
Louis, Missouri. Information: http://www.opera-stl.org; +1-314-961-0644.)

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